IQQ Vol. XLIIL, Art. l.-K. Yendo : 



with various forms of Alaria and undoubtedly with astonishment. 

 Ho determined certain forms as A. Pylail and others he divided 

 into various new species. The concrete knowledge of A. Pylaiiy 

 though still ambiguous, held by modern algologists, we owe to the 

 work of J. Agaedh " Grönlands Laminariaceer och Fucaceer." By 

 the rule of priority, however, we have to mention Greville as 

 the establisher of the species. The specific limitation of course 

 has gradually undergone much amendment and fluctuations since 

 Geeville's time. 



The ambiguity and uncertainty of A. PyJall arose fii'st of all 

 from the fact that the early algologists had an insufficient know- 

 ledge of the variation of the forms according to the stages of 

 development as well as to the condition of the place where the 

 plant grows. In the second place, authentic specimens distributed 

 by the establisher of the species have not been uniform or else 

 some of the later referrers to the species have not properly con- 

 sulted the original specimens. The original of Laminavia Pyliii 

 w^as from Newfoundland. Specimens from Greenland, Spitzbergen, 

 Vancouver Island, B. C, &c., were identified with it. Some of 

 these, however, as it appears to me, have been so identified merely 

 because either the sporophylls were soft, membranaceous and dis- 

 tant, or the blade thin and its base round.' 



In the first-year fronds of A. esculenta Geev., A. prœlonga 

 Kjellm. and A. grandifolia J. Ag. ( = A, ohlonga Kjellm.), etc., the 

 sporophylls are often oblong and distant. In such a stage, the 

 substance of the frond is naturally soft and membranaceous and 

 the stipe very slender. It is not unlikely for a herbarist to refer 

 such a form, when the specimen has come from a colder sea of 

 the North Atlantic, to A. Pylaii Geev. One might mistake with 

 excuse a specimen as illustrated by Kjellman in Alg. Arct. Sea, 



